Edward Snowden is both a hero and a traitor. While his actions in regard to informing the American people of possible constitutional infractions by the government in regards to individual privacy, his actions releasing United States Intelligence in regards to foreign powers makes him a traitor. When looking at the article from Newsweek, the author very obviously viewed Snowden as a traitor for his actions, however, I feel the author made an important distinction when he described the three effects of Snowden’s leak on the American people. There was the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. While it is a great Clint Eastwood movie, when the phrase is ascribed to real life situations it becomes obvious that there is often more bad that came about than good. Snowden considers himself, and all others who leak information to be heroes. What Snowden himself does not take into account but the Newsweek article references, is motivation. I feel like this is an important part of any discussion when considering Whistleblowers. Snowden for example is commonly viewed as having blown the whistle for the good of the American people, something Snowden seems to suggest himself in his forward to Inside the Assassination Complex. Newsweek, however, has another theory, based on what Snowden released and how he released the information it appears that the good of the American people was not his only motivation. As the article points out if Snowden had only been aiming for the good of the American People he would not have released information about the United States actions against their enemies or the processes they use to gather this information. He gathered and deleted so much information that it is likely the whistleblowing had a negative effect on United States intelligence agencies, which, if we have any faith whatsoever in the government would not be good for the common welfare of the American citizen. While he released information about gathering information on American servers and citizens, most of it was legally gathered information, even if the legality was questionable, he also released information about how the United States gathers information on foreign powers and terrorist powers. With all of this together, while he holds his actions were ethical, I do not believe that they were totally ethical. The negative effects of many of his more security compromising information may have long reaching negative effects. For this reason and the fact that he did in fact break many laws as well as his contract and clearance with the United States government, Snowden should be extradited and prosecuted for treason. At the very least this will allow him to defend himself and his actions in a legal battle. At this point we are not very far removed from Snowden’s initial leak and as such I feel it is hard to determine the far reaching effects of his actions. On an individual level I feel there is more distrust of the government than their was in the past, influential people such as Mark Zuckerberg are telling the citizenry to cover the web cameras of their computers, in order to stop spying. Personally I am very conflicted about the information, because while I feel the government may have gone to far, certain actions are needed to keep up with the ever evolving field of technological advancement.